Study on Vertical Dynamic Characteristics of Composite Sleeper Ballasted Track in Tunnels

In order to study the vertical dynamic characteristics of the composite sleeper ballasted track in tunnels, this paper establishes a dynamic model based on the finite element method, and compares the dynamic response of vehicle, wheel and rail systems, track systems and backfill layer with the type-III concrete sleeper. The research results show that the composite sleeper ballasted tracks’ acceleration of the car body and the wheel-rail force are smaller than that of the type-III sleeper. It can meet the safety of the train and passenger comfort. Because the composite sleeper has good elasticity, The rail displacement and acceleration, the sleeper displacement and acceleration of the composite sleeper are slightly larger than the type-III sleeper ballasted track, but the effect is not great. The composite sleeper has good elasticity and large damping, so that the acceleration of the track bed and the backfill layer is less than that of the type-III sleeper ballasted track. This shows that the composite sleeper has vibration damping characteristics for the track bed and the backfill layer

Direct fabrication of high-performance high speed steel products enhanced by LaB6

A direct fabrication technology (DFT) without smelting has been developed for fabricating sophisticated high speed steel products with low pollution, near-net shaping and short process. The steel consisting of (wt.%): 6.4W, 5.0Mo, 4.2Cr, 3.1V, 8.5Co and 1.28C, was fabricated as exemplary material. The activated and reactive sintering of green compacts under vacuum with low activation energy, redox reaction enhanced diffusion and the construction of concentration gradient of alloying elements around pores, promotes the nearly full densification (>\ua099.40%). Also, the DFT steels show high purity and superior mechanical properties. Minor strengthening agent LaB (0.1\ua0wt.%), which is easily to be accurately introduced in DFT, obviously increases the hot hardness, temper resistance, bend strength and toughness of DFT M3:2. The strengthening effect of boron atoms and La-rich complexes are proposed to directly result in the high hot hardness and temper resistance of LaB containing steel

Study on Vertical Dynamic Characteristics of Composite Sleeper Ballasted Track in Tunnels

In order to study the vertical dynamic characteristics of the composite sleeper ballasted track in tunnels, this paper establishes a dynamic model based on the finite element method, and compares the dynamic response of vehicle, wheel and rail systems, track systems and backfill layer with the type-III concrete sleeper. The research results show that the composite sleeper ballasted tracks’ acceleration of the car body and the wheel-rail force are smaller than that of the type-III sleeper. It can meet the safety of the train and passenger comfort. Because the composite sleeper has good elasticity, The rail displacement and acceleration, the sleeper displacement and acceleration of the composite sleeper are slightly larger than the type-III sleeper ballasted track, but the effect is not great. The composite sleeper has good elasticity and large damping, so that the acceleration of the track bed and the backfill layer is less than that of the type-III sleeper ballasted track. This shows that the composite sleeper has vibration damping characteristics for the track bed and the backfill layer

The Effect of Tellurium on the Formation of MnTe-MnS Composite Inclusions in Non-Quenched and Tempered Steel

Te is a seldom-used alloying element, which is mainly used in free-machining steel. The Te content in this kind of steel is relatively low, and only a small amount of MnTe is generated. In previous studies, the effect of Te on the formation of inclusions was not fully studied. In order to clarify the mechanism, different amounts of tellurium were added into 38MnVS6 steel to form a certain amount of MnTe. The MnTe wrapped the MnS, forming a composite inclusion. With the increase of Te content in the steel, the diameter of inclusion increased, while the aspect ratio of inclusion varied little. The aspect ratio of most inclusions was in the range of 1~3. Besides, the MnS in the MnTe-MnS composite inclusions gradually changed from one big particle to several small particles. The solidification of the steel, as well as the precipitation of MnS and MnTe, was the main factor that affecting the formation of the composite inclusion. The mechanism of the process was systematically expressed in the current study

Association between Habitual Dietary Salt Intake and Risk of Gastric Cancer: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies

Purpose. Systematic reviews of case-control and prospective studies showed a positive association between habitual salt intake and gastric cancer. Given new studies published thereafter, we carried out a meta-analysis to assess the association between dietary salt intake and gastric cancer. Methods. Case-control studies and cohort studies published between January 1992 and January 2012 on PubMed and Embase were searched. We quantified associations between salt intake and gastric cancer with meta-analysis. Results. Eleven studies (7 case controls and 4 cohorts) finally were included in the meta-analysis (total population: n=2076498; events: n=12039). The combined odds ratio showed significantly positive association between high salt intake and gastric cancer compared with low salt intake (OR = 2.05, 95% CI [1.60, 2.62]; P<0.00001). In subgroup meta-analysis, findings were slightly different when analyses were restricted to salty food intake (OR = 2.41, 95% CI [2.08, 2.78]; P<0.00001) as well as in Asia (OR = 1.27 95% CI [1.22, 1.32]; P<0.00001). There was no evidence that sample size, exposure assessment substantially influenced the estimate of effects. Conclusions. The systemic review supports the hypothesis that dietary salt intake is positively associated with the risk of gastric cancer

Alzheimer&#x2019;s Disease Prediction via Brain Structural-Functional Deep Fusing Network

Fusing structural-functional images of the brain has shown great potential to analyze the deterioration of Alzheimer&#x2019;s disease (AD). However, it is a big challenge to effectively fuse the correlated and complementary information from multimodal neuroimages. In this work, a novel model termed cross-modal transformer generative adversarial network (CT-GAN) is proposed to effectively fuse the functional and structural information contained in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The CT-GAN can learn topological features and generate multimodal connectivity from multimodal imaging data in an efficient end-to-end manner. Moreover, the swapping bi-attention mechanism is designed to gradually align common features and effectively enhance the complementary features between modalities. By analyzing the generated connectivity features, the proposed model can identify AD-related brain connections. Evaluations on the public ADNI dataset show that the proposed CT-GAN can dramatically improve prediction performance and detect AD-related brain regions effectively. The proposed model also provides new insights into detecting AD-related abnormal neural circuits

Biochar Addition in Membrane Bioreactor Enables Membrane Fouling Alleviation and Nitrogen Removal Improvement for Low C/N Municipal Wastewater Treatment

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are frequently used to treat municipal wastewater, but membrane fouling is still the main weakness of this technology. Additionally, the low carbon-nitrogen (C/N) ratio influent has been shown to not only increase the membrane fouling, but also introduce challenges to meet the effluent discharge standard for nitrogen removal. Herein, the authors addressed the challenges by adding cost-effective biochar. The results suggested that the biochar addition can enable membrane fouling alleviation and nitrogen removal improvement. The reduced membrane fouling can be ascribed to the biochar adsorption capacity, which facilitates to form bigger flocs with carbon skeleton in biochar as a core. As a result, the biochar addition significantly altered the mixed liquor suspension with soluble microbial product (SMP) concentration reduction of approximately 14%, lower SMP protein/polysaccharide ratio from 0.28 &plusmn; 0.02 to 0.22 &plusmn; 0.03, smaller SMP molecular weight and bigger sludge particle size from 67.68 &plusmn; 6.9 &mu;m to 113.47 &plusmn; 4.8 &mu;m. The nitrogen removal is also dramatically improved after biochar addition, which can be due to the initial carbon source release from biochar, and formation of aerobic&ndash;anaerobic microstructures. Microbial diversity analysis results suggested more accumulation of denitrification microbes including norank_f__JG30-KF-CM45 and Plasticicumulans. Less relative abundance of Aeromonas after biochar addition suggested less extracellular polymer substance (EPS) secretion and lower membrane fouling rate

Failure Analysis of a Chromium Plating Layer on a Piston Rod Surface and the Study of Ni-Based Composite Coating with Nb Addition by Laser Cladding

The failure of a chromium plating layer on the surface of a piston rod was analyzed, and an Ni-based alloy mixed with a niobium (Nb) composite coating was investigated by means of stereomicroscopy, metallographic microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Vickers hardness testing, and wear testing. The results show that penetrating cracks were present in the chromium layer. Subsequently, the corrosion intensified, resulting in the bubbling, cracking, and peeling of the chromium layer. The cladding layer presented a structure morphology of planar crystalline at the bottom, dendritic at the middle, and equiaxial crystalline at the top. The solidification parameters, which were derived from simulation results, confirmed that the ratios between temperature gradient (G) and solidification speed (S) decreased, and the values of the cooling speeds increased from the bottom to the top of the cladding layer. With an increase in Nb content, the structure became gradually refined and uniformly dense. The cladding layer of the Ni-based alloy mixed with Nb was mainly composed of &gamma;-Ni, Cr23C6, Cr7C3, NbC, and Ni3Nb. NbC could be formed in situ and presented itself in four forms: particles, dendrites, polyhedrals, and networks. The microhardness of the coating with 15% added Nb was enhanced to 400 HV0.2, and the wear resistance thereof was 11.14 times higher than the substrate. After the 15% Nb coating had aged for 16 h, the diffraction peak intensities of Cr23C6 and Cr7C3 significantly increased, and the volume fraction of granular NbC increased from 1.67% to 2.54%. The microhardness was enhanced to 580 HV0.2, and the wear resistance thereof was better than that of the chromium plating layer

Tunable Fabry–Pérot Resonator with Dynamic Structural Color: A Visual and Ultrasensitive Hydrogen Sensor

Hydrogen detection is crucial for the forthcoming hydrogen economy. Here, we present a visual, ultrasensitive, optical hydrogen sensor based on a tunable Fabry–Pérot (FP) resonator, which can fully release the volume expansion of palladium during hydrogenation and transfer this volume expansion into an optical signal. The FP resonator consists of a suspended polymethylmethacrylate/palladium (PMMA/Pd) bilayer on a gold (Au) square-hole array. The bottom of the gold square hole and hydrogen-sensitive PMMA/Pd bilayer form a dynamically tunable FP resonator. When hydrogen gas (H2) is loaded, the hydrogen-induced lateral expanding stress concavely deforms the suspended bilayer downward to the substrate, narrowing the metal–air–metal gap at the center of the hole, and finally leading to a spectral blue shift. Our experimental results show a giant spectral shift of 279 nm with a reflectance variation of 57% on exposure to 0.6% H2 mixed with air. Such an ultrahigh optical response results in a significant color change, enabling visual hydrogen detection. In addition, the sensor has a H2 detection limit down to 0.1% and good recyclability. These advantages indicate that the sensor has excellent potential for hydrogen sensing applications